The head of Strategy Agmashenebeli opposition party, Giorgi Vashadze, said Monday that the wording of the head of the ruling Georgian Dream party, Irakli Kobakhidze, who had compared the negative attitude to Russian nationals in Georgia with anti-semitism, was “creating basis” for Russian invasion of Georgia. 

The MP said that the Russian President Vladimitr Putin had approved a new concept for his country’s humanitarian policy abroad, where focus was made on the  protection of the rights of Russian citizens in Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Georgia and Moldova. 

“The Kremlin had pledged to do its best to ensure the protection of the rights of its citizens in these countries. We remember how Russia used the approach in 2008, in the early 1990s to justify its attacks on Georgia”, Vashadze said. 

“What is most alarming, Kobakhidze, in fact, directly created evidence for Putin and the Russian authorities to carry out aggression against Georgia, as he compares the negative attitude towards Russian citizens to anti-semitism," said Vashadze.

The politician suggested the closure of borders for Russian citizens to prevent threats of aggression. 

He stressed that if the Georgian authorities continued to reject the calls on the closure of borders on the backdrop of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and announced partial mobilization in Russia,  in the near future, “10 percent of Georgian citizens will be Russian citizens”.